Cheese-maker and owner of Sylvan Star, Jan Schalkwijk

Photograph by: Food

EDMONTON - I have my mouth set for the Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler that’s on the menu for Taste Alberta’s upcoming Farm to Fork food tour.

Part of my anticipated pleasure is simply because strawberries and rhubarb speak to me of summer; my mom always made a specialty of rhubarb in June and July, stewing it and serving it with custard in a little clear Pyrex dish, or wrapping it in her tender pastry, either in a pie, or in a galette made of the dough leftovers.

But another part of me looks forward to the Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler, because it’s being prepared by Edmonton chef Eric Hanson of Niche restaurant — one of a half-dozen chefs at the July 21 event that sees foodies and families touring farms in central Alberta, ending up at Gull Lake for a lovely picnic.

Hanson is one of a growing number of chefs who makes a serious effort to use local food in his cooking. The rhubarb he is preparing is from Salisbury Greenhouse, and he’s topping it with custard made from Ponoka’s Rock Ridge organic milk.

The thought of the local products that Hanson is using to make his dessert pleases me greatly, not only because local food is of high quality, but because the chef’s choices represent a measurable movement on the food scene that’s having an impact on what we eat, and on the people who produce our food.

As today marks the last issue of Taste Alberta, which has run weekly for more than three years and is devoted to the promotion of Alberta food, it’s a good time to reflect on what local means.

It’s taken a long time — the local food movement has been building for more than a decade in Canada — but it’s fair to say that today there is an increased consciousness by consumers that local is the way to go when possible. If you ask people why they shop local, many will reply that local food is fresher and has a smaller environmental footprint, plus it supports the economy and creates jobs all along the food chain that links farm to fork.

But there are significant challenges in supplying the population with local food. We live in a northern climate, and buying local is often restricted by the length of the growing season. Local food is more expensive than food trucked in from far away, and price is more of a factor for most consumers than origin.

The George Morris Centre (an Ontario agriculture and food industry think-tank) estimates that only about 40 per cent of consumers prefer local food. It remains difficult to get local food into supermarkets, although progress has been made at grocery store giants such as Save-on-Foods, which has a well-stocked local larder.

Still, big chains work with massive, complex distribution systems that are difficult to access for local producers, who are often small in scale. Safeway stores, numbering 86 in Alberta, feature some 1,800 products stamped with Buy Alberta tags, but only about 30 per cent of the produce sold at Safeway is local.

People who really want to shop local frequent farmers markets, where there has been serious growth in the last 10 years. According to a new report by Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, the market value of the province’s 130 approved farmers markets has tripled since 2004. Close to 75 per cent of Alberta households bought food at farmers markets in 2012, spending an average of $671, more than double the $317 per household spent in 2004, says the report.

Through Taste Alberta, readers have had the chance to meet small suppliers who bring food to the local farmers markets — and to learn their stories. People like Owen Petersen of Prairie Mill organic bakery in Edmonton, and his Calgary counterpart, John Juurlink.

We’ve also discovered cheesemakers close to home, including the Schalkwijk family of Sylvan Star near Red Deer, and Rafael Chavez of Calgary’s Latin Foods — both award-winners who make cheese from 100 per cent Alberta milk.

Through Taste Alberta, we’ve come to see that small can be beautiful. But we’ve also gained an appreciation for the work done by large-scale local, including the Alberta beef industry in Alberta, which is the largest cattle-producing province in Canada and contributes $12.7 billion to the economy. We’ve learned not just about the top quality meat and poultry that’s available in Alberta, but how to cook it, through interviews with chefs and butchers alike. We’ve come to appreciate simple, nourishing foods raised nearby, such as eggs. And we’ve learned about the wide variety of commercial outfits making products like perogies and cabbage rolls, and serving the robust Alberta market from within our borders.

If there is anything that writing for Taste Alberta has taught me, it’s that supporting local food is a no-brainer. It makes sense from a health and environmental perspective, and it’s good for business. I appreciate that local food is more expensive, and I would be the first to admit that I still shop at major grocery stores to save money.

But even at the grocery store, I seek out local labels and produce, and I spend a third of my grocery dollar at the farmers market. Supporting local is not an all-or-none perspective.

It’s easy to feel powerless as a consumer, but the truth is that we vote with our wallets. If we spend money on local food grown by local people, if we ask for it at the grocery store, it makes a difference. To us, and to them.

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